


A Very Unusual Resume

by Babbysocks



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (spoilers it'll either be bucky or steve), F/M, I haven't decided who she'll get with if anybody, Josie Choi (as a character), spoilers for the whole mcu like oh my god
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-06-01 00:23:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6493645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babbysocks/pseuds/Babbysocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josie Choi, a regular worker at Stark Industries, then S.H.I.E.L.D, then Stark Industries/the Avengers, then the Avengers fully, was never quite as normal as she seemed. A sharp wit, a ramble, a knack for getting herself into danger; it wasn't like her life was always fully safe.<br/>Most of all, Josie was a hacker, a computer genius essentially, who'd managed to endear herself to some very influential people in some very influential places.</p><p>(CHAPTER ORDERS MAY BE CHANGED PLS DONT MURDER ME)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In A World of Bugs and Fixes, the Woman With the Keys is King

Josie Choi was a scientist, not an agent. Hell, she was only a scientist if you counted computer science as a ‘true’ science, which the majority of people did not. So while she didn’t go into the field, necessarily, she made sure that all their technology worked, one, and two, she made sure that their files were safe, whatever those were.   
She, while she was in charge of all the files on the S.H.I.E.L.D system, had never actually lurked enough in the files to find out anything interesting. 

She smoothed her dress down. “So…I think I’ve fixed our bug, Mr…Director? Director Fury.” She nodded, spinning around in her chair. “Somebody must have been lurking and shut us all out.”  
“Lurking, miss?” he frowned, looking like he could straight-up murder her with a single look.  
“Uh…they were trying to find sensitive information that caused the system to shut down until somebody authenticated themselves as genuinely S.H.I.E.L.D.” she nodded.  
“Good, we’re going to need them up on the Helicarrier.” He replied, arms still crossed.   
He just walked off then, to Josie’s relief. Having to deal with Nick Fury when anything computer-related went wrong was very nerve-wracking. One wrong word and he could throw her through the glass elevators.  
She sighed, turning back around, spinning a pen around her fingers. She forgot about the Helicarriers. She had to work on making sure they were airtight, since it wouldn’t make sense for some kid in Vermont to take down an entire aircraft-type-thing remotely from his bedroom because she couldn’t do her job. 

\------

By the time she’d managed to get to the Helicarrier, she’d already managed to spot three people she recognized. And she hated it.  
She knew they didn’t know her, nobody knew her, practically. She was just the girl with the computers, who made sure they could access the wifi and be actually let on.   
She quickly made her way past the three, trying to hide. It didn’t work so well, considering Natasha spotted her nearly immediately, going to drag her over, rolling her eyes.   
“I don’t get why you try to hide from me.” Natasha frowned. “It never works.”  
“I hoped it would at least once, that’s why.” Josie replied, attempting to struggle. “Please let me go. I have wifi to set up and…and…”  
“And what? Facial recognition to calibrate?” Natasha snorted.   
“…Maybe I mean I do kind of have a job to do, that…y’know…I can’t do…unless you let me go…” Josie mumbled, basically just rambling as they approached who Josie knew were Captain America and the Hulk. Or, if she was going to be more professional, Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner.  
“Who’s this?” Steve asked, raising an eyebrow.   
Josie went stock still. “Uh…Josie Choi, I make sure you have files to access that aren’t…going to the bad guys, I guess.”  
“Josie Choi, head of File Safety.” Natasha replied for her. “It’s a dangerous job.”  
Josie frowned at her. “It kind of is I mean, if people know what I do then they assume I can access everything but- that’s classified I’m…Fury’s literally going to murder me and erase my existence if I tell you that.”  
Bruce frowned. “…What?”  
“…Nothing, nothing.” Josie sighed, running a hand through her hair. “I’m basically the IT person, without the headset or the advice to turn it off and on again because that could get us all killed, basically.”  
“So…you keep this thing in the air?” Steve asked.  
“Uh…in an…abstract way, I mean, I didn’t build it, I just make sure nobody can hack in or anything and make us crash…or I’m in charge of the people who do but mostly it’s just me.”  
Natasha cleared her throat. “I hate to break this up, but if we don’t get inside you might have trouble breathing.”  
Josie just nodded, quickly running off to get inside, holding her dress down. It was a bad movie, wardrobe wise, but she quite literally didn’t own pants. 

\------

She managed to find her office, or her quarters, shoving her suitcase in the corner, before going to her computer, noticing a Stark-affiliated intrusion.   
“Oh my god that better not be Tony or I will literally end him.” She sighed, sitting down properly, trying to bar him from the important files, while trying to make sure nobody else hacked in and or tried to murder them.   
Once she was ‘done’ with that, she supposed, she started with her main useful hobby (her other one was knitting, while Coulson liked, especially when she managed to knit him a Captain America jumper out of mohair – he had said it was the best Secret Santa ever), which happened to be designing weapons. Not making them, just designing them. It was part of what made her employable to Stark when she was merely an undergraduate in a mechanical engineering course.  
Besides, the reason she was an IT person here instead of designing weapons for the military was because of her previous experience with hacking into Stark Industries’ private servers, making her employable according to S.H.I.E.L.D.  
In any case, she was stuck in what she had deemed ‘the nerd hall’, where Banner was going to be working, along with herself, being a particularly reclusive person who didn’t do well when everybody around her looked focused and all she wanted to do was spin her pen. Besides, she didn’t do well when surrounded by agents when she was not one herself.   
Sure, she knew some basic hand-to-hand, but nothing that would let her win against anybody who was even the same size – case in point, Natasha Romanov. But she supposed Natasha was in a class all her own when it came to combat.

She was still watching her screen after a little while, basically watching them run facial recognition, having made herself some noodles. She had to admit, watching them as they came to the conclusion that they had to go to Germany was amusing to her.  
“So…flying over Germany…wow.” She smiled. “We’re certifiably insane.”

\--------

She was actually asleep while Natasha and Steve went to Germany to face Loki, having fallen asleep in her chair. She didn’t have anything special to do, and she figured after that breach from Stark that he’d want in on the action at some point – and apparently, he did, ending up on the Helicarrier when she woke up, in her room in fact.  
She jolted awake, “I’M WORKING I SWEAR IT WAS A POWER NAP-!” she called. “Oh. It’s just you. Mister ‘I’m going to compromise the security of your system because I want to’. Hi.” She frowned, rubbing her eyes.   
“Y’know, that was rude.” He joked. “I’m wounded.”  
“Wounded by what? My observations of the truth? Do you relish in the fact that you ruin all my hard work?” she frowned, standing then.   
He was still taller than her.   
“…To be honest, yes.” He nodded. “So, how do you like working for S.H.I.E.L.D?”  
“It’s been better. A lot better, actually, I mean, I used to actually get to sleep but it’s whatever. I get a room for free and good wifi.”  
“You literally run the wifi.”  
“Exactly, so it’s better than good, it’s amazing.” She shrugged. “And this is better than designing weapons, it means I don’t have to show people how to use them. I mean, sometimes people call me and need me to sort out permissions and stuff but apart from that it’s…”  
“Secretive?” Tony joked, crossing his arms. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”  
“What? Are you talking about the fact that even though I control who sees the files I’m…not allowed to see any important files?” she sighed. “Because yeah, I know, it’s a royal pain in my ass but I live with it because one, free rent, and two, I don’t have to be near any agents that I don’t let it myself.”  
“Nice rant.” He replied, ruffling her hair. “Kiddo.”  
“Shut up old man.” She replied.  
“You’ll always be a kid to me.” He joked. “You’ll still be that 16 year old at a desk in a blazer too big.”  
“Yeah well now I’m working at S.H.I.E.L.D in a sundress so…” she sighed, before turning back to her computer. “Don’t you have somewhere to be, Mr Stark?”  
He shrugged. “No. I just thought I’d drop by, into your little office and see how my favourite prodigy was doing.”  
“Oh my god, shut up.” She replied. “I’m 20, not 10.”  
“20 is still young.”  
“Yeah, if you count 90 as middle-aged.” She sighed.   
“I guess it could be for the Capsicle.” He shrugged.   
She turned back to him then. “He’s not that bad, y’know. He actually thanked me for keeping this thing in the air.”  
“But…you just handle hackers.”  
“And hackers could bring this thing down if they knew how.” She shrugged. “I could bring down anything S.H.I.E.L.D’s built with the tap of a few keys, if I’m honest.”  
“Well yes, you practically designed the software.”  
“Forget practically.” She replied, stretching. “I wrote the coding for the Helicarriers. All of them, so if I wanted them out of the sky, they’d be in the Pacific by now with a drowned crew.”  
“That’s…probably not a good thing, Jose.”  
“It is if you don’t trust the people you work for.” She frowned. “Which I don’t. I’m not allowed to know anything besides how to keep people out, but I guess they forgot that I wrote the system and I can unwrite it if I need to.”  
“Okay…still not a good thing.” He sighed. “Sometimes I’m scared of you.”  
She shrugged. “I don’t get why. I’m an asset, that’s what Fury says.”  
Tony just shrugged. “I’ll leave you to your work.”


	2. Fuck Tony Stark

By the time that Josie had noticed Stark’s decryption, he’d already accessed a fair amount of the files that not even she had access to.   
That alone made her very, very angry, but for him to then come into her office and ask why she was suspicious made her absolutely furious.  
She knew exactly where he was, and she stormed in, hair flying behind her, looking not as all even remotely pleased.  
“What the holy Hell do you think you’re doing with that bug, Stark?” she demanded, crossing her arms, just noticing Captain America and Bruce Banner. “I told you not to do this.”  
“You know I don’t play by the rules.” He shrugged, eating his blueberries.  
“This isn’t a rule, this is common courtesy that requires you not to snoop when all you had to do was ask me for information.” She replied, glaring at him. “And then to act like you didn’t try to?”   
He just shrugged.  
Steve looked down at her then. “Why are you angry?”  
“Because he came to my office after literally breaking into our system, twice if not three times, and decided to lecture me about not trusting the people I work for when he’s doing the same thing but illegally.” She replied, taking a step towards Stark then.   
Stark rolled his eyes. “There’s a lot you don’t know. As you were saying, Capsicle.”  
“Anyway, you think Fury’s hiding something?” he asked, looking irritated.  
“Sure as hell he’s hiding something, it’s on it’s own server.” Josie muttered, still angry.  
“Captain, he’s the spy.” Tony frowned, glancing at Josie. “His secrets have secrets. It’s bugging him too.”  
Josie rolled her eyes. “Yeah but those secrets are classified, one, and two, they require more than a bug stuck under a desk to be accessed given all the different security things I had to add.”  
Bruce looked up then. “Uh…mm…I just wanna finish my work here…”  
“And go back to India with the small children and the small villages.” Josie replied. “Yeah, gotcha, buddy but S.H.I.E.L.D still would know exactly where to find you if they needed you. Or the other guy. Nice try though.”  
Captain looked over to Bruce as well, ignoring Josie who was starting to sound more and more like a slighted 13 year old who got told she couldn’t go to a party.  
“Doctor?” Steve asked.  
Josie just rolled her eyes and decided to leave, wandering out as Bruce began to explain his thoughts.  
She just wanted noodles and a nice, long nap, with no interruptions. She also hoped she wouldn’t have to deal with Loki at all in any capacity, considering she thought he was a maniac who also gave birth to a horse. She did her research.

\----- 

She wandered back from the small kitchen-esque room, heading back to her quarters, when she ran into Steve, who looked less than impressed.  
“Oh, hey Cap’n.” she smiled, twirling her fork in her noodles. “How are you?”  
He merely shrugged, clearly not good. Something was clearly said that threw him off.   
“…Did Tony spout some stupid shit about secrets and S.H.I.E.L.D is hiding everything from us?” she sighed. “because I told him not to say that to people when I was working for him but nobody ever listens to me-“  
“Wait you worked for Stark?”  
“Yeah, I was one of the youngest…people to work in his IT department, I got hired personally, why?” she asked, “All because I hacked into his system and made it say he was a massive tool.”  
He nodded, clearly wanting to be somewhere else. “Okay…” he replied, before wandering off. Josie didn’t care where, if she were honest.  
She headed back to her office, finishing her noodles on the way, spotting her computer flashing red.   
“Okay what the fuck.” She sighed, sitting at her office chair, “This better not be Stark or I swear, he’s dead to me.”  
She tried pulling up what people were doing, noticing documents open about ‘Phase Two’. She knew what that was, at least.  
“No, no…no…” she sighed, getting up and going back to where she knew he was working, even more angry than before.  
“Did I not tell you, Stark, not to snoop?” she essentially growled, “Jesus Christ-“   
It was then that she noticed Fury, and quickly shut her mouth, allowing him to continue speaking.  
She didn’t really pay attention, mostly noticing exactly who was in the room; Steve, looking possibly more angry than she was; Natasha, who looked coolly concerned; Tony, who was, as always, a snarky delight; Thor, who looked vaguely confused; and Bruce, who looked vaguely angry.  
She decided to leave then, to find a safer place to hide in case the ‘Other Guy’, as Bruce put it, came out.  
She wandered up to higher floors, even out to the main deck where Maria, somebody she’d only spoken with on occasion, was working on the virus.   
“The virus is something to do with Loki, I heard Natasha talking about it.” Josie told Maria, going to sit at the table on the main deck, stretching. “And besides-“ she started, before hearing a very loud explosion.   
She immediately decided it would be better for her to go barricade the door of her office and never come out, as well as put the ship into lockdown. But, of course, she hadn’t gotten the order for that, so she just went back to her room, as quickly as she could, waving away the smoke that was pouring through vents. 

\------

She made it back to her room, putting whatever she needed to into lockdown, breathing heavily.   
She knew she wouldn’t be able to fix much after the explosion which she had guessed was in an engine, so she settled for waiting it out in her office until Fury made an order. Which, apparently, he didn’t, instead deciding that they needed to land in water.   
She also heard a lot of crashing, and a lot of roaring, deciding to just try to avoid that as best she could. She was, after all, only a tiny human with no particular powers.  
She continued to hear explosions, sitting in her tiny, hole-in-the-wall office, trying to block her ears until it was over. Besides, you could only find her office if you already knew where it was, which she was hoping that Barton, somebody she had read was taken, did not know.  
What she did see, however, was her computer screen glitch out and go back, causing her to jump up, very worried suddenly.   
“…If we don’t have those we’re all going to die we have no way of…” she muttered, immediately going to leave her office, running through the halls, just trying not to trip while she saw what she assumed were S.H.I.E.L.D agents run through in the opposite direction.  
She did, however, trip, as the entire helicarrier started falling from the sky, tilting backwards and throwing her back towards the corner near her quarters, making her hit her head   
extremely hard and black out.

\-----

When she awoke, she was in a bed, and very groggy, with Maria Hill standing over her looking important.  
“We need you awake and at your desk.” She said once Josie was sitting up.  
“Is it really a good idea to put me in front of a computer when I’m pretty sure I was concussed?” Josie replied, though she got out of the bed anyway. “I could kill us all.”  
“You won’t, we just need you to get communications up.” She replied, patting Josie on the shoulder. “Then I’ll try to get you some leave, okay?”  
“I don’t want leave I want to sleep for sixty years.”  
“Ask the Captain how that went for him.” Maria tried to joke, helping Josie back to her quarters. “I’m sure he’ll tell you ‘not well’.”  
Josie shrugged. “So? It’d be better than going back to work after you got thrown into a wall.”  
“Probably not.” Maria smiled, letting her in. “Get communications up.”  
Josie just nodded, saluting and going to do her job, figuring that those with ‘ability’ as Fury would say, had already left to deal with whatever situation happened after she blacked out.   
She had it running after not long, sitting back and holding her head, very sore. 

\------

She just watched with anticipation, on her own, even watching the news coverage after, spotting her little brother talking about the Hulk. She figured she should give him a call later, to see if he was okay.   
In the mean time, she just watched and smiled, waiting for Fury to walk in and tell her to pack, which he did, after an hour or two. He generally liked to keep her where he could see her, for security reasons mostly, since she knew how to essentially dismantle their entire system.  
“Okay, so…back to Washington or what?” she asked, standing once he entered the room. “Or New York?”  
“Washington.” He nodded, crossing his arms. “And bring a coat.”  
“Okay, is the Captain coming?” she asked, “Or is he staying in New York?”  
“We’ll see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a very brief summary of Josie during the Battle of New York.


	3. When All Else Fails, Trust Steve

She ended up, obviously, in Washington DC, with her new apartment (which, she had to admit, was very nice and probably too spacious for somebody who spent 99% of her time at work).   
It had two levels; the first, with her living/dining and kitchen, as well as one bathroom, and the second, with her bedroom, another bathroom, and a walk-in closet, all with some very impressive exposed brick work.   
She’d settled in relatively quickly, finding some nice cafés to visit when she had the time, usually dropping into S.H.I.E.L.D relatively late, already full of caffeine.   
It hadn’t been long before Steve Rogers settled into his role either, which was, obviously, that of an Agent.   
And while they worked in different areas, that did not mean that they didn’t come across each other, with Josie running into him as she left most days, eventually leaving after some extremely awkward conversations.

However, Josie wasn’t as comfortable doing what she did anymore. She’d been doing some snooping, after Stark’s intrusion. At first it was just a few peaks at classified files, like the real names of a few agents (she knew one was named Sharon), but it progressed very quickly to looking at the blueprints for new helicarriers with capabilities that she just plain didn’t like the sound of.   
In fact, she was thinking of moving back to working at Stark Industries, if Tony’d have her. Or Pepper.   
But her thoughts of moving back to New York were overshadowed by her thoughts of leaking all these plans, and also by Steve. He didn’t know what he was working towards, or anything like that.  
Unlike her, who happened to find strange documents when she was scanning for viruses or for intrusions, and she found herself staying very late to find out what it all meant.  
While she was thinking this all over while walking out of the office, she ran into what felt less like a person and more like a giant, warm brick wall, letting out a very undignified noise that sounded suspiciously like a cat that got hit by an eight wheeler.   
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Steve smiled, turning around then. “Was I in your way?”  
“Uh…no I just…I wasn’t watching where I was going I’m sorry.” She mumbled, looking about as stressed as she felt in her big jumper and her coat. “Did my face hurt you?”  
“No.” he smiled, before his face morphed into concern. “Are you okay? You look like you’re about to drop dead.”  
“I’m fine, I’ve just…had more than a few long days, is all.” She tried to force a smile. “Y’know, with all the people trying to break into our classifieds and stuff…I mean, you don’t look that great yourself.” She joked.   
He raised an eyebrow. “You look like you miss New York.”  
“How can you tell?” she joked, stuffing her hands in her pockets.   
“It’s obvious.” He smiled.   
“I haven’t actually live in New York since I was 19, but…thank you.” She joked weakly. “Since, y’know, I ended up with S.H.I.E.L.D after that…” Even the name ‘S.H.I.E.L.D’ was a bitter taste in her mouth.  
“Yeah…” he said awkwardly, still looking down at her.   
“I’m gonna go.” She sighed, heading past him to her bright yellow vespa, which was carefully parked.   
Josie was particularly proud of her efforts to buy this particular vehicle. She’d checked all the regulations about where she could park it; she checked that it was inconspicuous enough, and she checked the safety precautions she needed in order to legally drive it.   
“Nice…scooter.” Steve joked.   
“Well, a car is too hard to find a park for.” She shrugged, as he headed to his motorbike, which was close to her vespa. “Nice…what is that, a Yamaha or?”  
“Harley Davidson. That’s what they tell me.” He joked.  
“Honestly you look like a greaser who’s about to tell me to race Thunder Road.” She joked.   
“I don’t get it.” He smiled.   
“…Which means you haven’t seen Grease which means you’re missing out.” She joked. “You’re missing out on Kenickie and Rizzo and some of the best love stories you’ll see.”  
“Who are they?” he smiled.  
Josie rolled her eyes. “You need to add that to your catchup list, Cap. Because you’re missing out big time. I mean, you’re missing out on Tony’s jokes about Summer Lovin’ and Grease Lightning.”   
“Still don’t know what those are.” He joked.   
“Add it to your list. I know you have one you took my recommendation about Star Wars, both the movies and the actual policy.” She replied, “Have you seen those yet? ‘Cause if not I’m gonna have to invite you over to make you marathon them because I’ve seen all of them.”  
“Or you could come to mine, that might work too.” He shrugged.  
She shrugged. “Lead the way and I will, Steve.” She smiled, settling. “I have them on my laptop anyway.”  
He nodded, pulling out and beginning to lead her to his apartment or house. She’d never been there, she wouldn’t exactly know. 

\-----

By the time they’d made it back to his apartment, his neighbor, Kate, had told them that he’d left his stereo on.  
Josie, of course, wasn’t paying very much attention at all to this, just waiting near his door with her laptop in her hands, which she had conveniently forgotten had written a few of the programs that S.H.I.E.L.D found necessary.   
When they wandered in, the first thing Steve noticed was Nick Fury on his chair, and the first thing Josie noticed was how profusely Nick was bleeding.   
“Oh my god-“ she breathed, putting her laptop down on Steve’s kitchen bench, as Nick started to explain about ‘his wife kicking him out’ and how ‘only his friends knew’.   
Before Nick could explain further, however, there were a number of very loud, very scary (for Josie, at least; she was mostly a desk jockey after all) gunshots that rang out, piercing Fury’s skin and leaving him on the floor.  
Josie waited until after ‘Kate’ came in with her gun out to go to what she presumed was his body, checking his pulse, shaking him slightly, before staring after Steve, who had jumped through a damn window.  
“I just wanted to watch Star Wars.” She mumbled, staring at where Fury’s presumably unconscious or dead body was. “With a very tall, very handsome guy, and instead of being able to do that, I watch my boss get shot, and tomorrow I’ll have to deal with fucking Sitwell and honestly I straight up want to stab him, he’s a dick.” She sighed, as ‘Kate’ called for an ambulance. “And I’ll probably have to ride along, or something, and...everything’s just awful.”  
‘Kate’, who she had worked out was actually Sharon from the field, sighed. “It’s not…okay, maybe it is bad. But we’ll live.”  
“We just saw our boss, the damn director, shot through a window by an unidentified attacker and we’ll…’live’?” Josie frowned. “He could come back! I don’t want to die, I only just turned 21! I have so many damn bars to hop and too many cocktails I haven’t tried yet, plus I still have to code for Insight and I still have to literally stab Sitwell! I’m too young for this!”  
“You’re going to get grey hairs.” Sharon replied, gun still out.   
“I’m too young for grey hairs!” Josie whined, as the ambulance arrived, loading Nick Fury’s body onto a stretcher, gesturing for the two ladies to follow, which Josie did, but Sharon stayed. 

\------

But of course, when they reached the hospital, the only thing on Josie’s mind was where Steve was, since Natasha was there waiting and so was Maria Hill, her favourite deputy director (though, to be fair, she was also the only deputy director she had ever known).  
“So…you were there, what happened?” Natasha frowned.   
Josie just shrugged. “One moment he’s talking to Steve, the next he’s on the floor. That’s all I know.”  
It was that moment that Steve came in, looking relatively frantic.   
“Steve, are you okay? You…look like you’re going to faint or something.” Josie joked weakly, turning to him. “Not like you are or anything you just look frazzled.”  
“You seem oddly calm for somebody who just saw their boss shot.” He replied easily.  
“Well…I know he’s not dead, and…I also know what he found. Kind of. And now I don’t want to go to work tomorrow because it’ll be the worst day to be in IT at S.H.I.E.L.D.” she sighed. “And I’m going to cry.”  
Steve patted her long, dark hair awkwardly. “It’ll…it’ll be okay, Choi. Just…stay calm, and don’t accidentally spread a virus.”  
“If I spread a virus it’ll be to help you.” She mumbled, resting on the window that allowed them to see Nick Fury’s surgery, which was not going well.  
Natasha glanced at her. “You should go home, Josie. This isn’t the place for IT girls.”  
“I guess not but I wouldn’t feel safe there. I watched somebody get shot through an apartment window.” Josie replied, “But…whatever, I guess. I’ll…I’ll see you guys tomorrow, okay?” she sighed, heading out then, calling herself a taxi.


	4. As In, Please Don't Murder Me

The next morning, she saw Steve arrive, and decided to tail him through the cameras all throughout the building. She had to admit, she was worried. She’d seen the emails between Sitwell and Secretary Pierce earlier that morning, so she knew what was coming.   
She wasn’t even in the office, she was lurking around her apartment, watching from her laptop.  
She bit her lip, deciding that she should just go to the hospital, having noticed Steve slink off before coming to meet them to go to a vending machine. 

 

Once she was there, she met up with Natasha, who was buying literally all the Hubba Bubba gum in the machine so she could get to what she presumed was what Nick gave him that night in his apartment.  
“So…you must really like their strawberry.” Josie joked, though she didn’t surprise the spy.   
“Clearly.” Natasha deadpanned, still trying to buy it all before she got to the strange USB that Josie was sure she’d seen.  
“So…that USB…” Josie sighed, as Natasha pulled her into a room, spotting Steve enter, clearly attempting to be disguised.  
Natasha tried to keep her quiet, before going up to him and popping her bubble near him.  
This, of course, prompted a rather aggressive response, that being Steve pushing her back into a room, the exact one that Josie was in.  
“Where is it?” Steve asked.  
“Safe.” Natasha frowned.  
“Do better.” Steve gritted out.  
“Where did you get it?” she asked.  
“Why would I tell you?”  
“Fury gave it to you. Why?” She asked.  
Steve paused for a moment. “What’s on it?”  
“I don’t know.” Natasha essentially shrugged.  
“Stop lying.” Steve growled.  
“I only act like I know everything Rogers.” She frowned.  
Steve and Natasha then started talking about pirates, and Josie lost interest, standing and waiting for them to stop.   
“I know who killed Fury.” Natasha told him, pausing for a moment. “Most of the intelligence community don’t believe he exists, the ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He’s credited with over two dozen assassinations over the last fifty years.”  
“So he’s a ghost story?” Steve frowned.  
“Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa, we lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer so he shot him…” she pulled up her shirt to show a scar from a bullet. “Straight through me. Soviet’s luck. Bye bye bikinis.” She smirked.  
“Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.” Steve replied.  
“Going after him is a deadend, I know, I’ve tried.” Natasha explained. “Like you said he’s a ghost story.” She held up the USB.  
“I know what’s on the USB thing, maybe, I think. If you’re still interested.” Josie interrupted, causing Steve to look over.   
“It’s dangerous for you to be here. Go home.”  
“But I’m also a coding master.” She replied easily.   
Natasha looked over. “I thought I told you to stay quiet?”  
“No, but I can’t stop myself. S.H.I.E.L.D’s tracking you. Both of you.” Josie frowned. “And that USB. So we might need to get a damn move on.”

\------

They ended up in a crowded mall, with Natasha and Steve on one side and Josie on the other, still tracking the S.H.I.E.L.D operations to find them, her hood up.   
She just followed where they went, which happened to be an Apple Store, which she very quietly protested, but she knew they couldn’t use her laptop; it essentially wrote what was on the USB to begin with, and was easily traceable if you had the talent.  
“I still think this is a shitty idea.” She mumbled, pushing her glasses up, trying to hide. She wasn’t planning on getting recognized by somebody who was very into coding.   
“Shut up and go with it, we can’t use yours.” Natasha muttered, “We have nine minutes.”  
“I could buy us some time…if you let me use my laptop.” Josie replied.   
“It’s not happening.” Steve frowned.   
“Fine, give me your phone.” She sighed, holding out her hand. “They’re trying to track you and they’re succeeding.”  
He handed her the small phone, which she promptly left the store with and dropped into the fountain on the bottom level before heading back to an indignant Steve.  
“Necessary evil.” Josie shrugged, “Besides, they’re already inside the mall.”  
“And how do you know that?” Steve asked.  
“I track Rumlow. Shady guy.” Josie replied. “And he’s leading on this one, so…”  
“I get it.” He nodded, as one of the geniuses came up to offer some help, with Natasha spewing some bullshit story about a honeymoon.  
“Specimen?” Josie joked. “Weirdo. I recognize him though.”  
“From where?” Steve asked.   
She shrugged. “He was in my mechanical engineering course at Columbia.”  
“You did mechanical engineering?” Natasha asked, “We’re going to New Jersey.”  
“Yes, I did mechanical engineering, but only while I worked for Stark. I dropped out once I got a job offer from S.H.I.E.L.D because it paid better.”  
Natasha merely shrugged, leading them out of the store very quickly, towards the escalators, where they, Natasha and Steve, kissed so Rumlow wouldn’t look at them.  
Josie just hid behind a very obnoxious phone case that looked like a sad panda.

\-----

Somehow, Steve managed to steal a car. It was, to say the least, very concerning to Josie, who just sat herself in the back seat, fiddling with her hands while Natasha questioned Steve.  
She was mostly thinking about how much they would have trashed her office back at S.H.I.E.L.D or how much they would have fucked up her computer. She kept thinking about it until they pulled up, actually, with Steve leading them inside, saying something about how that was where he started.

Josie was not all that bothered with a lot within the camp, pointing at the flagpole. “Well…I bet there’s something in there. You could try to pull out the pins and take it down.” She shrugged.   
Steve was focused on a building he thought was out of place.   
“Army regulations forbid storing ammunitions within 500 yards of the barracks.” He frowned, leading the two women towards a door to the supposedly wrong building. “This building’s in the wrong place.”  
“Well maybe it’s not for munitions?” Josie coughed, trying to keep up. They were both very much taller than her.  
Steve just shrugged, breaking the lock with his shield, leading them inside, down some stairs, to what seemed to be an office.  
“This is S.H.I.E.L.D…” Natasha said, with what only could be described as a near-smug smile.  
“Maybe it’s where it started.” Steve replied.  
“I’ve only ever seen pictures in the old files of places like this…” Josie smiled, following the others to a back room, spotting pictures on the back wall.   
Steve stared for a while.  
“That’s Stark’s father…” Natasha smiled.   
“Howard.” Steve nodded, almost smiling.  
“Who’s the girl?” Natasha asked, as Josie stayed silent, trying to look for flashing lights.   
Steve was silent, walking away, as Natasha followed, while Josie was looking for flashing lights near some shelving that they were walking to.  
He managed to find a hidden door while she was looking for a flashing light still, not speaking for a moment.  
“If you’re already workin’ in a secret office…” he pulled the door open. “Why do you need to hide the elevator?”  
Natasha pulled out her phone-like device and and found the code for the elevator.

 

As they made it down in the elevator, Natasha was silent, but Josie had decided to speak.   
“So…she was Peggy, wasn’t she?” Josie asked Steve, rocking on her heels, speaking again before he could answer. “I know because I’ve seen her face before. Documentaries, war pictures…her files on our system…”  
“Why do you wanna know?” he frowned.  
“Because it’s clearly important to you as a person.” She shrugged. “That makes it part of your personal story and it’s of interest to me.”  
“And why is it of interest to you?” he replied.  
Josie sighed. “The same reason I wanna know why you haven’t seen Star Wars yet.”  
“And what reason is that?” Nat asked.   
“You know what, screw telling you.” She pouted, as the elevator dinged and released them from what Josie called the prison of awkwardness.   
She was mostly disappointed with the lack of music.  
They walked in silently, with Josie at the back, just following quietly into the dark room with lit up once they got close enough to the centre to reveal a large, very old it seemed, computer.   
“Mother of god, this has to date pre-1980.” Josie frowned. “It’s too big otherwise…my mom didn’t even use this.”  
“How old’s your mom?” Natasha asked, stepping towards the computer.   
“50.” Josie replied quietly. “But that’s not important.”  
Natasha shrugged, “Yeah, this can’t be the data point, this technology is ancient.”   
“Tell me about it.” Josie frowned, before pointing out a small USB hub. “That’s not though.”  
Nat shrugged, plugging the USB she was still carrying in, watching as the lights from all the parts of the computer that were all around them lit up, starting to whir.   
A camera also lifted its head, staring at them.   
“Initiate system?” it asked.  
“Nat, I don’t trust this.” Josie frowned, watching it. She loved computers, but this was freaking her out.  
Nat just shrugged, going to type ‘yes’. “Shall we play a game?” she smirked, turning to look at Steve. “It’s from a movie that was popular-“  
“I know. I’ve seen it.” Steve frowned.  
The camera turned to look at Steve.  
“Rogers, Steven. Born 1918.” It began, before turning to Josie. “Choi, Jung-ah Josephina. Born 1993.” It turned to Nat then. “Romanov, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984.”  
“It’s some kind of recording…” Natasha frowned.   
“Or facial rec, considering I haven’t gone by Josephina since B.S.” Josie sighed, staring the the monitor. “Before Stark.”  
“I am not a recording, Fraulein.” The computer spoke, “I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945. But I am…”  
“Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He’s been dead for years.” Steve frowned, moving to walk around the computer.   
“First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you, I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however…that was worth saving. On 200,000 feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain.” Zola replied, from his technological conscious.  
“How did you get here?” Steve asked, finding his way back to the platform.  
“Probably the same way most NAZI or HYDRA scientists made it over. They traded their work for their lives and for being left out of Nuremberg.” Josie replied. “But only if they were viable.”  
“Yeah, S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists of strategic value.” Natasha replied.  
“They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own.” Zola replied.  
“HYDRA died with the Red Skull.” Steve replied, almost defiantly.   
Josie thought for a moment, just listening.  
“Cut off one head. Two more shall take it’s place.” Zola replied, splitting into two images on the monitor.  
“Prove it.” Steve replied, still with his defiant tone.  
“Accessing archive.” Zola replied, as Josie heard more whirring. It was probably the fan, or they were literally about to cook.  
“HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with it’s own freedom.” Zola began, showing images and clips. “What we did not realize…was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist.” He showed clips of the Captain himself, and Josie petted his shoulder. “The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew, beautiful parasite, inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crises, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate…history was changed.”  
“That’s impossible, S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you.” Nat replied, almost incredulous.  
Josie bit her lip. “Well…nearly nobody would have access to the files that showed this sort of stuff it’s on it’s own server that…I was…responsible for…making sure nobody accessed…”  
“Accidents will happen…” Zola continued, “HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete…HYDRA’s new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero sum.”  
Steve, in all his building anger, punched the monitor, shattering it.  
“As I was saying.” Zola replied.  
“What’s on this drive?” Steve asked, still angry.  
“Project Insight…requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm.”  
“What kind of algorithm? What does it do?” Nat asked.  
“The answer to your question is fascinating.” Zola began. “Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it.”   
Steve and Nat both looked to the door, as Josie just looked up. “I’ve been…oh my god this is my fault I should have gone snooping when Tony fucking told me to- I’m so fucking stupid.” She muttered, as Steve threw his shield at the rapidly closing door, only for it to come back.  
Nat checked her phone-like device. “Steve, Josie, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic, 30 seconds tops.”  
“Who fired it?” Steve asked.   
“S.H.I.E.L.D.” Nat said, looking vaguely distraught.   
Josie just stood still. “So…we’re dead, yeah? I’m dead, and I didn’t even get a damn opportunity to fix what I damn broke, that being everything. I was literally paid to keep this shit a secret and I didn’t even know, and instead, I have to hear about all the awful stuff I contributed to without my knowledge, I should have just stayed with Stark-“  
“I’m afraid I have been stalling Captain.” Zola told them. Nat took the USB. “Admit it. It’s better this way. We are…both of us…out of time.”  
Steve pulled a grate off the floor, and Nat jumped in, followed by a very panicky Josie, and finally by Steve, who covered them with his shield as the building was blown up around them, with Josie trying to press as close as possible to him.


	5. Please SOS

By the time that they got out, or emerged from the rubble, Josie had passed out and managed to come back, coughing and spluttering, trying to get the smoke out of her lungs.   
Nat had actually passed out, and Steve carried her out, with Josie hobbling, hunched over, after him, until they actually managed to see sky for a brief moment before Steve tugged them away, spotting planes and also people. With guns. Including Rumlow.  
“Steve-“ Josie coughed, as he tried to duck and weave them along. 

\-------

They managed to make it somebody’s house, Steve now with Natasha awake and Josie, who was clearly not cut out for this, blacked out in his arms.   
“Hey man.” The guy said.   
“I’m sorry about this…we need a place to lay low.” Steve said, panting a little, a fainted 21 year old in his arms.   
“Everyone we know is trying to kill us.” Nat said, very quietly.  
“Not everyone.” The guy said, leading them inside, allowing Steve to safely deposit the small, Asian girl on his couch, where she promptly woke up with a jolt. “What happened all I remember is a fucking robot and missile-“  
“Chill, Choi.” Nat sighed, rolling her eyes. “We’ll be back in a minute.”   
“No I wanna go too.” She replied, moving to stand, “I…Rumlow knows I know now. I’m fucked.”  
“Rumlow? Why are you worried about Rumlow?”  
“Rumlow’s big, and scary, and he usually has a gun, and…I’m literally just a kid with a computer and an engineering degree so…”  
“You’re not a kid.” Nat sighed, bringing her to the bedroom to sit, so she’d stop shaking like a leaf.   
“You don’t get it Nat, I thought I was doing good, I thought I was protecting state secrets so nobody got hurt and so we didn’t get nuked but now I know I was just…covering for Zola and covering for his continued existence and making sure that everything Cap did was for nothing.” Josie sighed. “I mean…I wasn’t allowed to read the files, and I didn’t, and that’s no excuse, Tony told me when I started working there, before the Battle in New York, not to trust them. Don’t trust Pierce, don’t trust anybody, they’re liars-“  
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. But…what you do know…is how to get into their system.” Nat replied, looking shaken herself. “You can find out everything.”  
Steve was showering, so Josie felt relatively comfortable.   
“I guess, I mean…I could…try to. I didn’t bring my laptop though, that got crushed. I’d just need another computer, preferably not one associated with anything social-media wise.” She sighed, rubbing her temples. “If I can get that, I can get into S.H.I.E.L.D’s system and find everything. I could leak it. I could ruin them. Or get myself assassinated which I already knew they weren’t above but…what if they hire the Winter guy or something? What then? I’d be dead. I’d be deader than dead, I’d be metal arm- wait. Wait-“  
Nat looked up. “Hm?”  
“Did you see the metal arm during the thing Zola was showing us? It was a glimpse but I saw it- I think the Winter Soldier is HYDRA.” She frowned. “Which means we’re doubly fucked, I mean, he might remember you. But…I could find info. On the private server.”  
Josie stood, going to go find Sam and get the laptop, finding him in the kitchen.

“You know, you probably shouldn’t be standing. You were passed out not 20 minutes ago.” He replied, still not turning.  
“It was just a short range ballistic missile, it’s no problem.” She joked, “Do you have a laptop I could use? I know we’re meant to be laying low but I can get information so…”  
“How?” he asked, turning then.   
“Well I was…key word being was… S.H.I.E.L.D’s key cyber-security expert.” She replied, “So technically I have access to all their files, so I can…get to them…”  
“Okay, any specific kind of laptop?” he asked, going to find one.   
“All I need is one with a connection to the internet,” she replied, just waiting in the kitchen when he came back with a laptop.   
“Thank you.” She grinned, taking it and going to find a nice, secluded space, ultimately deciding on a closet where she started trying to get into S.H.I.E.L.D’s system, and by extension, HYDRA’s.

\------

It took maybe an hour, two hours, maybe even three, before she was into HYDRA’s server, going through and finding a few familiar names and faces; Jasper Sitwell, Brock Rumlow (what a surprise, she thought to herself), Doctor List, and many others. She’d tell them about Sitwell, but first she decided she’d dig a little deeper.  
After a little while, she managed to find some useful stuff on ‘the Winter Soldier’, looking through names and dates and former assignments, before finally coming upon a scanned-in version of the original file.  
“…James Buchanan Barnes.” She frowned, “Howling Commandos…but he’d be like…a hundred by now…well…I guess Cap’s like 98 so I don’t have a leg to stand on, do I?” she mumbled to herself, trying to memorise the information in case she needed it.  
She didn’t feel like her telling the Captain that the Winter Soldier was his friend was going to be beneficial to him, either.   
So instead, she just saved all the files she needed onto a USB, and decided to go to her office.   
She handed Sam his laptop back on her way to the bedroom, with a quick thank you.  
When she walked in, Steve was saying he was always honest, and Sam was following Josie, telling them he had breakfast made.  
“Hey uh…Sam says we have breakfast, and I have info.” She smiled, leaning against the doorway, still looking like she got hit with a missile.   
“Shower first,” Nat joked.  
Josie pouted. “Fine. Steve, take this.” She replied, handing Steve her USB of information. “Lose it and you’re dead.”  
Steve just playfully saluted and went to get food, while Josie went to shower.  
While she was showering, she thought about why somebody would fire a missile at their own ex base.

\-------

When she wandered out, they were all gearing up to go get something. “Where are you going?” she asked, in her beat-up jumper.   
“Somewhere you can’t.” Sam replied.  
“And why can’t I go?” she asked. “Exactly?”  
“You’re 5’1 with no experience with a weapon.” Natasha shrugged.   
“Good point but where are you going? The Triskelion? Because they’ve wiped you off the system.” She frowned. “But they didn’t wipe me.”  
“Probably for a reason, Josie.” Nat sighed.  
“No, I’m going.” She replied, “Because you can’t get in without me, so whatever you’re planning on doing, I wait in the car.”  
Nat just looked at Steve, who shrugged.   
“Fine but if something goes wrong, you bolt.” Steve sighed.

\------

She did as she said, waiting in the car while they interrogated Sitwell, which she worked out pretty quickly was their plan.  
“So, you can tell me what my SAT score was?” she asked the agent, as they dropped her back at her apartment.   
Sitwell rolled his eyes. “A near perfect 1580.” He replied, as Josie was wedged between Sitwell and Nat.   
“Actually it was 1588 out of a possible 1600.” She replied. “But, nice try.”  
“Anyway, HYDRA doesn’t like leaks.” Jasper said, leaning forward.   
“Then try stickin’ a cork in it.” Sam frowned, driving the car.  
Nat leaned forward then, squishing the smaller girl. “He said it’s launching in 16 hours, we’re cutting it a little close here.”  
“We’ll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the helicarriers directly.” Steve replied calmly.  
“What!? Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea-“ Sitwell began, before he was, quite literally, thrown out of the car into the traffic on the other side of the road, causing Josie to scream very quietly.  
“Jesus Christ we’re all dead. We’re dead! You know what I’ve read about this guy? Literally lost his mind, we’re fucked!” she breathed, basically trying to climb into the front.  
Steve just let her, pulling her in, allowing Nat over him too so she could cover them.   
“Okay we’re double dead-“ she muttered as Steve pulled the handbrake, throwing the metal-armed assailant from the top of their vehicle.   
That is, only for him to jump back on, and pull out the steering wheel, causing literally everybody to swear as they went out of control, behind hit from behind with an SUV and with no way to steer, being rammed into the barrier of the highway.  
Steve, thankfully, bailed all of them out by essentially making them dogpile, with Josie falling out and rolling, very dazed and confused for a moment before realizing that who she knew was James Barnes was out for murder and death and the elimination of at least Steve’s life.  
So she did what any rational human would do; she went, and she attempted to hide, which Nat would not allow, essentially handing her what Josie assumed was some kind of grapple and pushed her off, allowing her to swing to the ground before many shots were fired.   
After she was semi-safely on the ground, she caught her breath, spotting shadows and also spotting Steve fly straight into a bus.   
“Great. All my friends are going to die, and I’m not even old enough to drink yet. Thanks HYDRA, you’re ruining everything.” She muttered, wishing she could just call Tony and get him to save her ass, but instead she went and found the smallest hiding place she could, checking herself for any scrapes or scratches or gashes.  
Which she found plenty of, but none deep enough to be an issue.  
She wound up moving though, once the man with the metal got too close, still staying in the area just in case. It was near her apartment anyway, so if she needed to, she could hide out there.  
She kept hidden, watching when she could, from behind her wall of concrete. She watched an explosion, she watched Black Widow, or Nat, try to strangle the guy, then she watched her fail, run away, and get shot, followed by Steve running in, getting kicked back, then having hand to hand combat, still wondering if the metal man (who was, for all intents and purposes, essentially the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz) knew he was James Buchanan Barnes. She doubted it, in any case, but she moved her hiding spot, but not before getting hit in the ankle by a stray bullet, causing her to fall over.   
She knew she couldn’t move, so instead she just laid there and waited for inevitable death.


	6. The Infiltration of Employment

She, of course, did not die, and was instead loaded into a S.H.I.E.L.D van, trying to keep consciousness, very much out of breath.   
“Jesus Christ…” she muttered.  
“It was him. He looked right at me.” Steve began, “He didn’t even know me…”  
“Who? The Winter Soldier?” she asked, pretty delirious. “I…was going to tell you earlier, but…he’s James.”   
“How’s that even possible?” Sam asked. “It was like…70 years ago…”  
“I guess it’s the same way Cap was kept. Frozen in time, brought out when needed, then put back into his box. L-like…like a toy.” Josie mumbled.  
“Zola.” Steve sighed. “Bucky’s whole unit was captured in ’43 and he experimented on ‘em. Whatever he did must have helped him survive the fall.”   
“And he must have…done the whole super soldier thing, huh? Well…minus one arm but still my point stands.” Josie sighed, “I remember people muttering about building an arm a while ago…maybe four months? Saying it was top of the line, for an amputee soldier who needed back out. I didn’t connect it.”  
“Zola must have found him.” Steve muttered.  
Nat sighed, also delirious from her shot through the shoulder. “None of that’s your faults.”  
“Even when I had nothing I had Bucky.” Steve sighed.   
“He won’t remember you anyway. Maybe not…not immediately, he has a mission, he has…he has programming, he has no surface memories.” Josie mumbled. “It’s on his file, I found it before. Super serum, cybernetic arm, the works. No haircuts though apparently.”   
Sam rolled his eyes, before looking at Natasha. “We need a doctor. We don’t put pressure on that and she’s gonna bleed out right-“  
The guard in the back brought out their taser-stick, threatening Sam.  
Well, that was until they hit the guard next to them with it and pulled off their helmet to reveal Josie’s favourite Agent, Agent Hill.  
“Thank god, that thing was squeezing my brain.” She sighed, looking around at them. “Who’s bright idea was it to take the IT girl?” she sighed, “And who’s this guy?”  
“Uh…I’d answer that if my ankle wasn’t bleeding so hard.” Josie sighed. “And the answer is that I know for a fact that they erased their access, so I’m here…for access.”  
Maria nodded. “Good to know. Why take you into a fire fight?”  
“I didn’t want to.” Sam sighed. “She’s not even 5’4.”

\-------

They ended up, of course, in a very forested area, with Josie on Sam’s back, still very delirious, and very much wanting to sleep. She hadn’t lost a lot of blood, and it missed bone, she knew that much.   
She only really registered Maria shouting that they needed medical attention, and Josie declined seeing ‘him’ first, just wanting her stitches and some nice, long hours of sleep.   
So she did that, while the rest went to see ‘him’.

 

Once she was up, however, she did go to see ‘him’, finding out that ‘him’ was actually Nick Fury, and she was, pun intended, furious.   
“So you let me work under fucking Alexander Pierce, Mr HYDRA, for a fucking week while you pretended to be dead after a fucking super soldier shot your ass?” She screeched, very deeply unhappy. “And then I find out that everything I’ve been protecting is a fucking lie and you never told me? And don’t give me the Nuremberg excuse because you won’t have to fake your death, I’ll make it fucking real!”  
Nick just raised his eyebrows. “Choi, we both know you couldn’t break a carrot. Don’t make threats you can’t follow through on.”  
She just sat back, crossing her arms. “You could have told me about Rumlow. That one was obvious. And Sitwell?” she sighed. “That one was more obvious than when Tony put a bug under your desk.”  
Nick just smiled. “So you finally went digging, huh?”  
“I went digging, and struck evil.” She sighed. “I have a USB ready to leak it all. Everything. I don’t care about S.H.I.E.L.D anymore, Director. I don’t think I ever really did.”  
“Why?” he asked.  
“Well, Tony never kept secrets from me. While with S.H.I.E.L.D…I was hiding secrets from myself. Actually, I didn’t know what I was hiding until I realized it was the brainwashing and experimentation on a guy they kidnapped in 1945.” She sighed. “Who also happens to look like a sad puppy but don’t tell Steve I said that.”   
Nick just nodded. “So why bother?”  
“The pay was better, that’s for one. Two, I got to travel, and three, I got an offer for S.H.I.E.L.D to pay off my mechanical engineering degree, so I decided to take it.” She replied. “No bullshit about saving the world, nothing like that. I could have become Edward Snowden if I wanted that, hell, I could still do that. I’d go to Sokovia or something, sit it out a little, get a…semi-decent apartment.”  
“Sokovia isn’t a great place”  
“I was kidding, I’d probably just go…back to Seoul. See my eomma, see how her lab’s doing.” She shrugged, moving to stand. “Maybe I’d stay there for a while, or maybe I’d go and work for Stark again.”  
Nick just smiled nearly weakly, or as weakly as it was possible for him to look. “Sort it out after you lead S.H.I.E.L.D.”  
She just left then, going to go find somewhere quiet to sit and think, before she got a phone call from her dad, who was in Washington himself, a diplomat.   
“Dad?” she frowned, going to go find a quiet place anyway. “What are you calling me for?”  
“Are you safe?” he asked, sounding frantic. “Where are you?”  
She rolled her eyes. “You know my location at all times is classified.”  
“You’re not at work, your office is trashed, I just came by to drop off some food.” He told her. “You’re…not with Captain America, are you?”  
She glanced at where the Captain was standing, watching her with a confused expression.   
“Uh…no. I’m not. He’s on the run from where I work, remember? I took a few days off, to clear my head. I’m not even in the state.” She replied.   
“Choi Jung-ah.” He replied, and she could tell he was frowning. “Tell me the truth.”  
“Uh…I did. Already. Tell you the truth I mean.” She replied, cursing herself for being so terrible at lying. “I’m out of the state, clearing my head. In fact, I’m in…Colorado…at a day spa…very relaxed…”  
“I know you were under that missile.” He sighed. “You could have died!”  
“I think the point of firing the missile was making sure I died, dad. Did it succeed? No. Am I still here? Yes. Am I injured? A little, a little gunshot wounded but pretty okay. So I left the state, and now I’m in Colorado. In a day spa. And I’m very tired so if you excuse me I’m gonna finish my…fish massage…and go take a mudbath- bye abba!”  
She hung up then, breathing a sigh of relief as Steve came forward.   
“Who was that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.   
“My dad.” She sighed. “he’s worried because he heard about the missile. Well, he was…there when they launched the missile, actually. Like…in the room. He was trying to cover me. Cover us, really.”  
“Are you…worried about him?” He asked.  
“Well, yeah. He’s not HYDRA yet he works with Pierce. I’m worried as hell but I can’t do anything and I would have to be the one to tell my eomma if he died.” She sighed. “Which…would suck because she’d stop working and it’d be a nightmare so…”  
“I’m sorry but…what does eomma mean?” he asked.  
“Uh she’s…eomma means mom. In Korean.” She nodded, stuffing her hands in her pockets. “’Cause…I’m…Korean…anyway-“   
“What about your accent?” he asked.   
“Well I was born over here but my parents divorced and then my dad went to New York and my eomma went to Seoul so I’m usually in New York since that’s my home city I guess but yeah.” She shrugged. “So…to answer your question, I was born here, educated here, my dad was born here, but eomma’s a Korean citizen and her name is Ah Chae-young.” She shrugged. “She’s a scientist, she’s trying to replicate the serum they used on you. I don’t think it’s working very well.”  
“Isn’t it?” he joked, suddenly somber. “That was a long ramble. You do that sometimes.”   
She shrugged. “I get nervous a lot. I mean…earlier yesterday I was getting shot at by people I thought I worked for, and today I hear from Fury that I should leave S.H.I.E.L.D.” she replied. “Oh, and I had a creepy robot monitor tell you guys my real legal Korean name. Which is weird because I only use that on legal forms and the only people who know it are employers.” She replied.   
“So…you don’t usually go by Jung-ah then?” he asked, leaning against the wall.  
“Well…no, I mean, I don’t usually go by Josephina either. It’s like…it’s like you going by Steven Grant, except I don’t have a middle name.” Josie smiled.   
“So it’s usually just Josie.” He nodded.  
“With the risk of having people who were around in the sixties make jokes about pussycats, yes. Which reminds me, we still need to watch Star Wars.” She nodded. “We’ll do that after all this is over, except this time, it’ll be my apartment.”  
He just nodded, laughing a little. “I’ve never been in your apartment.”  
“It’s nice. Cozy, little, but you’d fit.” She smiled. “At least for a while, I mean, I don’t take up a lot of space.”  
“I could probably fit you in a backpack.” He joked.   
“You probably could, and I’d probably be comfy.” She smiled. “You should probably go get ready. Getting into the Triskelion’ll…probably be hard.”   
“Probably…I’ll be back later.” He nodded, leaving then. “Then we can work out how you’re getting in.”  
“That’s easy! I’ll walk.” She joked, motioning to her crutches. “Straight through the front door.”  
He just rolled his eyes, walking away.


	7. The Leak

By the time she got there, she was just hobbling through the front door, heading to her office, knowing her dad was in the building. Not just in the building, but with Alexander Pierce.   
She minded; she minded a lot. She wanted him out. It was one thing she made Natasha promise before she left; leave Daniel Choi out of this.   
Of course, she didn’t expect him out of this unscathed; she certainly hadn’t even arrived there unscathed. She had scratches and gashes and a bullet had gone through her ankle, but she was there, casually walking in with her jeans and her sweater, ready to do what she could to stop what was happening. 

Once she’d made it to her office, Captain America was speaking, and she was sighing deeply.   
He was speaking about how the price of freedom was high, and it always had been. She knew that, now more than ever. The price of her having access to secrets, for example, had cost her a lot of pain, and the price of her knowing about HYDRA could cost her the life of her dad.   
She was still willing to risk it, however, and she thought of it as nearly irrational. Very nearly. But not quite.  
She sat down at her favourite spinning chair, noticing exactly how trashed her office was, with all her little knick-knacks smashed with the obvious thought of if she’d put a bug in one. She hadn’t, obviously.   
She got out her laptop, her home one, and started to get to work uploading everything she possibly could to as many places as she could, leaning back.  
It was all she could do; she couldn’t handle a gun, or do more than kick a guy where it hurt; she couldn’t do that stuff, it wasn’t her, and it wasn’t her skill set. She could build things, she could design things; she could destroy reputations with the files she could now access and upload, and she could secure other things, though she preferred the former of the last two.  
It wasn’t long before she heard gunshots, crawling under her desk with her laptop, hiding. She knew they wouldn’t find her if she hid behind the filing cabinet, it was literally built for this.  
She also heard very loud beeping, noticing on her screen something that said ‘override’.  
“No, no fucking way, no-“ she muttered, typing frantically, trying everything she knew to try to get it to stop. She knew it was most likely futile, but it was worth the attempt.  
She noticed somebody else dumping half of what she wanted, beginning to grin to herself.   
“Thank god for Natasha.” She sighed, continuing the file dump of secrets; mostly HYDRA’s, in her batch.

\-----

It was that moment, that exact moment that she heard the siren, telling her to evacuate. She looked to her laptop; she had enough connection to do this from anywhere. So she picked it up, picked up her bag, and ran, trying to avoid whoever she could, ending up on the top floor. She took a wrong turn.   
“Natasha! They’re doing evac.” She panted, before looking up, going to put her laptop, still doing its info dump, onto a table.   
Natasha shrugged. “Yeah, Tin Man made an appearance.”  
“Predictably.” Josie frowned, staring at Pierce, before looking to her dad, who was holding a gun to Pierce.  
Natasha raised an eyebrow. “You know him?”  
“Well…that’s kind of my dad so I guess yeah.” She shrugged, stretching.   
Her dad tried not to break stance. “Josephina. You shouldn’t be here.”  
“You didn’t even know this was going to happen, dad. I did, the plan was for me to do an information dump while Insight was launching, and while you were up here agreeing with it.”  
Nick raised an eyebrow. “So…your father…was going to have me suspended?”  
“That’s not important.” Josie frowned. “What’s important is that I saw Rumlow headed up the stairs in the west side of the building, meaning that he’s going to murder us all.”  
Natasha sighed. “Great. But…we’re trending so somebody’s dirty secrets are out.”  
It was that moment that Pierce decided to turn on the pins people were wearing, making Daniel Choi yell out, falling to the floor, same with the others except for Natasha, who dropped her gun when asked.   
Josie immediately went to her dad, trying to check for damage, only finding a hole in his sternum, trying not to cry.   
“Dad I don’t wanna have to tell eomma you’re dead so if you could just…” she breathed. “Not die, that’d be really great, okay? So…so…”  
“Not that this isn’t touching,” Pierce began, enduring a withering look from Josie.   
“No, you shut your fucking mouth, Pierce.” Josie replied. “Before I get somebody to hold you down so I can sew it shut. I could call Thor, I could call Tony, I could call the fucking Hulk – okay maybe not the Hulk, Banner doesn’t take my calls or anybody’s but I could get Tony.”  
“Nice rambling.” Natasha sighed.  
“My point is that I can call Tony Stark to one, hold you down, two, help me cauterize the wound that’s going to be your entire mouth, and three, help me throw you off a fucking building.” She replied. “And I’ll do it. Because I hate you. And you killed my dad. Maybe.”  
It was then that they noticed that the targets were gone from the screen.  
Pierce merely shrugged. “Come on, Natasha. You’re going to fly me out of here.”  
Natasha went to go with him, before pressing a button and allowing for Nick Fury to shoot Pierce twice, sending him through the screen, while Josie just went back to her dad, trying to keep him awake.  
“Dad…dad…abba…” she whimpered, as he finally faded away.  
“Choi, we have to go.” Nick sighed, trying to pull her away, which she did.   
“I-I’m gonna have to…” she replied, “I’m gonna have to tell my eomma…a-and pay for a funeral and…”  
Nick just led her to a helicopter, once Natasha was awake, and set her in the back, before allowing Natasha to fly the thing.  
Josie ended up just sitting there, mind blank, in shock.


	8. Interlude

A few months later, Josie had two graves to sit at. She had her father’s, which she wanted to be alone at, and Nick Fury’s; he wasn’t really dead, but he apparently was.  
She joined Steve and Sam at Fury’s after he father’s very long, very quiet funeral, wiping the tears from her face.  
“You know, he left a kid behind.” She mumbled, as Sam looked up.   
“Who, you?” he asked, trying to joke.   
She shook her head. “My little brother.” She replied, watching from a distance as a child, maybe 10 or 11, was guided by a very frail looking woman into a taxi. “He’s going to live in Seoul for a while. Maybe forever. Eomma thinks it’s safer there than here with me. Considering my company.”  
“Maybe your eomma’s right.” He joked, ruffling her hair.   
“Yeah…I mean…I did get hit by a missile, get shot by a stray bullet, and fall out of a moving vehicle, as well as watch my abba die in the space of a week.” She sighed, as Nick Fury in the flesh came over, explaining that he was going to Europe for while to find more HYDRA.  
“You in?” he asked them.   
Josie thought for a moment. “I’ll freelance for you. Nothing permanent.”  
Nick just smiled, or came as close as he ever did to a smile. “I’ll call you if I need you, kiddo.”   
“I can almost drink now, I’m not a kid.” She joked, leaning back, though her voice was weak.  
Steve just smiled, patting her shoulder. “You’re not a kid. You’re just little.”  
“Little and responsible for the single largest leak of government information that the world has ever known, thanks to a USB I leaked to the media a week ago.”  
“So why aren’t you on Capital Hill?” Nat asked, walking towards them.  
“Well…because I was anonymous and would prefer to stay that way.” She shrugged.   
“So…where are you going to go now?” Sam asked.   
Josie just shrugged. “Might lay low in Korea for while, y’know…spend time with my family…mourn for a while…might come back to work for Stark…might do more digging on HYDRA, find out which fucker I have to kill before I feel whole again. Y’know, usual kid stuff.” She joked. “Mostly the last one. Might get my eomma to try out that serum on me, if it’s safe. You never know.”  
“I hope you’re kidding.” Steve frowned.   
“Might be, might not.” She replied easily.


	9. The Aftermath, And The Beginning

Josie never went to Seoul. She couldn’t let her mom see her the way she was. Instead, she went to Tony.   
Tony was like the father that her father never was, all ‘I’ll scare boys away’ and not really meaning it. He’d known her since she was a kid, and she knew JARVIS like the back of her hand by now.   
Instead of working in her preferred field of IT, he had her working in mechanical engineering as a lab tech, mostly for him, with her own little space in the tower.  
So of course, once he landed with the others after the latest raid, she was up there with Helen Cho, who knew her mother well.  
“Oh, hey Tony.” Josie smiled. “I have a prototype for the new suit ready, if you’re interested. And there’s coffee down there.”  
He just smiled gratefully and walked off, as Helen was hurried off with Clint Barton, somebody she wasn’t particularly acquainted with, despite the Battle of New York.  
She did however notice and know Captain America, who walked off, taking off his helmet.  
“Well hey there Captain.” She teased, “How was…where was it?”  
“I think it was Russia.” He joked, ruffling her hair. “How was staying here, in the tower?”  
“Boring. All virus checks and prototypes.” She shrugged, spotting Thor next. “Thor, how’s it going?” she smiled, as Steve left.  
He just shrugged. “All is well, little one.”  
She just shrugged then. He was weird.   
She waited for Banner then, but instead decided to find him on the plane. “Hey…Bruce? Bruce…”   
She found him after a moment of searching. “You know, baroque and opera usually only work for studying.” She joked.  
He looked up. “Usually.” He smiled, moving to get off the plane then.   
She just smiled, letting him off first, hands in her pockets.   
She was off the clock as of approximately 2pm, ending up in Helen Cho’s small, temporary lab, chatting with her in Korean before Tony came in.   
“Are you two done talking about getting your nails done?”  
“Actually we were talking about my eomma’s work. Y’know, the one with a serum that prevents decay of all kinds.” Josie shrugged. “The one with my little brother?”  
Tony looked uninterested. “Are you coming to my party on Saturday?” he asked.  
Josie shrugged. “I have to, so…obviously I’m going. Plus I can drink this time.”  
Helen just looked down. “That depends…is Thor going to be there?”  
“Probably, and chances are he’ll call me a dwarf again.” Josie joked. “I mean, I’m short, but I’m not that little...”  
Tony just grinned. “Yes you are. You’re tiny.”  
“You know what else is tiny?” she frowned. “Because I can name something that’s micro. And it’s not me.”  
Clint laughed at that, almost exaggerating it. “She’s funny, keep her.”  
“He doesn’t have a choice he signed a very comprehensive contract.” She smiled. “Plus he’d also have to find a use for my space. Which…I don’t think he can do, considering all the space he has already.”

\------

Josie didn’t see Tony for days, or Bruce. In fact, she didn’t see them until Tony’s party, where she actually dressed up, in her black dress, with her black shoes and her nice makeup, just sitting by herself, sipping champagne, watching Steve and Sam, thinking about how awful her bra was making her feel. She kind of wanted to go to a quieter place already, already hating this a lot more than perhaps was necessary.   
She watched Steve and Sam leave, wandering upstairs.   
She ended up following after ten minutes, to where Thor and Steve were now talking to some older gentlemen, sighing.   
“Thor you aren’t seriously letting ‘mortal men’ drink your Asgardian liquor, are you?” she sighed, crossing her arms.   
Steve glanced over, resisting the urge to whistle. “Well…you clean up well.”  
“I’m surprised you noticed.” She joked, “I thought I looked like a little kid playing prom dressup.”   
He just smiled, patting her shoulder. “I think you look very beautiful.”  
“Well thank you, Steve.” She smiled, going off to go find Sam. At least Sam wouldn’t notice her dress.  
She did find him, looking over the city.   
“So…did you find a place in Brooklyn?” he asked, looking over.  
“Yeah, actually. Two bedrooms, paid for by Stark, nice bricks, nice art deco touches.” She shrugged, sipping her flat champagne, which wasn’t nice. “Expensive, but worth it.”  
“I know Steve hasn’t.” he smiled.   
“Steve’s looking in his old neighbourhood. Not a great idea, since it’s kind of been…gentrified. It’s expensive now.” She shrugged. “I live in a nice-ish area. Not great, not terrible.”  
He just nodded, sipping his drink. “Did you use those martial arts coupons I got you for your birthday yet?”  
“You mean combined Christmas/Birthday.” She corrected. “And yeah. I did. I was thinking about getting Nat to train me or something, if I’m honest…since she kind of saved my ass multiple times.”  
“I could train you.” He shrugged.  
“Tony’d fight you in a second, I’m like his weird adopted kid that he teases and pays.” She joked. “I mean, you saw his party he threw for my 21st. His roast was funnier than my eomma’s, and my eomma’s literally known me since forever. But I guess he knew me as an adult better.”  
“I guess…I mean, he’s known you since you were what? 15?”  
“14 is when he first knew of me, 15 is when I hacked in and broke everything, 16 is when he finally offered me a job.” She replied. “And-“  
“17 is when you decided to move-“ Tony interrupted.  
“No, 17 is when my eomma decided to move back to Korea to work, and my dad decided to go to Washington.” She replied. “So I had to move out. It was a forced decision.”  
“And 18 is when you first decided you hated IT and wanted to do engineering.” He replied, as Sam stayed silent.   
“Right. But you’re missing the year I got a good SAT score and you threw a party for that, without inviting me.”  
“You weren’t old enough to drink.” He shrugged.  
“So? It was my score, not yours.” She pouted. “I’m still bitter. Maybe that’s why I went to S.H.I.E.L.D. You threw parties without inviting me, your favourite under-21.”   
“I think you left for money, actually.” He replied, patting her shoulder.   
“Why do you guys keep patting my shoulders? I’m not like, ten. I’m an adult.”  
“You haven’t always been an adult around me.” Tony shrugged. “Steve and…Sam-“ he gestured to the man, “And Nat and Clint and Thor…yeah, you’ve been an adult and it’s weird.”  
“Exactly.” She shrugged, sipping her drink. “When you met me I was 14, and hadn’t been shot at at all yet. And now, here I am, with scars on my ankle at a Stark party with the Avengers.”  
“Exactly.” He nodded, ruffling her hair again.   
“Don’t do that! It’s rude!” she whined, “I worked so hard to get my hair to curl and you’re ruining it.”  
“It’s just a curl.”  
“True-“ she began. “But it was hard to achieve.”

\------

Once the party wound down, they were left with just the Avengers, plus or minus a couple of people, including Josie, who was currently lounged across an entire chair, watching Thor challenge people to lift his hammer, with Clint and Tony already trying, as well as War Machine, and Bruce, and Steve.   
“Oh, can I try?” she asked, sitting up then. She was drunk enough to try.  
Thor just waved to her, and she went up to try, getting it a little way off the table before it fell again, not that she noticed. Thor did, however, raising his eyebrows.   
“Well, looks like I can’t.” she shrugged, not noticing Tony’s stare in particular.   
“Hey! No fair! The shrimp can lift it but we can’t?” he said indignantly.   
“I…didn’t lift it…?” she frowned.   
Steve looked up. “You lifted it a little…not a lot but a little.”  
“So I’m like, a little tiny bit worthy but not enough to wave it like it waves nothing?” she joked. “Good to know that the tiny Korean girl is mighty.”  
She rolled her eyes and went back to her seat, before hearing a very loud, piercing noise from downstairs.  
She covered her ears, looking up to see a very…mangled looking robot, who was saying that they couldn’t be worthy, and that they were all killers.  
“Hey! I haven’t killed anyone! I’ve…threatened it but I haven’t! Maybe by extension but…never actually, okay?” she yelled.  
Tony glared, before telling JARVIS to reboot, repeatedly, while the robot droned on and on about how he ‘killed the other guy, he was a good guy’.  
It wasn’t until he said he was Ultron that Josie actually listened, perking up.  
“Tony you fucking didn’t. You didn’t. Please say you didn’t.” she sighed.  
Tony just glared again, trying to keep her quiet while the robot rambled, until more of the robots flew through the walls.   
Josie immediately went to hide, knowing she still couldn’t handle these things, essentially at all.  
But running in heels was hard for anybody, so instead, she tripped over, just moving to hide under the table, curled in her ball, deeply unhappy with the noises she was hearing; glass shattering, groans of pain, the sounds of the boosters on the robots. She was near Helen, who was more scared that Josie herself was.   
“We’ll be fine…” Josie told her. “And if we’re not fine…we’ll…uh…be better soon…believe me I got shot in the ankle and lived. And there was a missile strike that I lived through, that happened too.”  
Helen frowned. “But…these are suits. Of Tony’s.”  
“Well, yeah but he’s trying to disable them, I mean…A for effort?” she joked, hiding behind the piano now.  
“Well that was dramatic.” Ultron stated. “You want to protect the world, but you don’t want it to change. How is humanity saved if its not allowed to…evolve…?” he then talked about puppets, before continuing on his original point. “There is only one path to peace…the Avengers’ extinction.”  
And with that, Thor’s hammer went flying across the room, hitting Ultron in the abdomen and shattering the robot against the wall.

\------

They all met in Tony’s lab after, Josie staying with Helen, not even listening to what they were saying, too angry about what Tony and Bruce had done. Who allows for AI that isn’t perfect? Who does that? Idiots do that.  
She just wrapped herself in her blanket, sighing softly, “If I were still in IT I could try to tell you where he went. But obviously…I’m not still in IT. Or, for that matter, in the business of being in other people’s business. I stopped that after I got aimed at with a missile, so…”  
“I think a murder-bot would leave you alone.” Bruce sighed. “You’re not an Avenger.”  
“Well no…true.” She shrugged. “I’m gonna go. Before Thor comes in and decides he hates everything.”  
She left then, just going to go crash on one of Tony’s many couches.

 

\------  
When she got up, she noticed one thing; a pile of files in front of her, and she attempted to dig through, only for Bruce to find something of substance before she got too far in.  
“Oh thank god…Wakanda though?” she frowned. “I remember my dad saying something about going there once, massive illegal smelting trade there.”

\-------

While her ‘friends’ were off in Wakanda, she trusted them to find and end Ultron. So, she decided to take her annual leave, going with Helen to Seoul.  
She needed to see her mother, after all, and she needed to see her brother.   
She stayed with them, once she arrived, going to Helen Cho’s lab with her mother every morning, just to see what they were working on.   
It was fine, for a week, maybe a day or two, until it happened.


	10. When In Seoul

One night, when Josie decided to stay late and so did Helen, Josie heard a very familiar voice.  
It wasn’t a nice voice, and it was in Helen’s office.   
In fact, it was the voice of Ultron.   
She’d thought that her friends had finished him, but evidently not. So she went to the door, and tried to open it, and stumbled into something she’d seen before.   
She immediately pulled back, set to leaving, attempting to contact Tony, at the very least, but her phone seemed determined not to work.  
She instead settled for sitting in the lobby of the building, hiding herself, though she knew it wouldn’t last.

\---------

By the next morning, when everybody was arriving, she spotted a blue blur go past her.   
“What the mother of holy Jesus was that?” she mumbled, deciding to follow it, going past her mother’s lab and towards Helen’s again.  
She already didn’t like this. She didn’t know who these two were, exactly, but she didn’t like them.   
“Who…who are you?” she asked, as she spotted them huddled in the door way. “I know everybody here except you two.”  
“You don’t…speak their language?” the girl asked, looking down at her.  
She raised an eyebrow. “Korean? I speak it, yeah. But uh…also English…mostly English…”  
Ultron looked up, “Oh! It’s the Stark girl!”  
“I’m not a Stark, I’m a Choi, we’re different.” She replied, but she could already tell that the two humans in the doorway didn’t like her. “I…don’t…like him either? I’m not an Avenger! I promise I just code stuff, and…hack stuff…and design stuff…no powers!”  
The man (she hoped he was a man at least, he was very pretty. She couldn’t stop thinking about how fucking pretty he was – but she was getting off topic, and very much distracted from the possible life/death situation at hand) frowned. “Stark…you work for Stark. I remember. He called you.”  
She thought for a moment. “Uh…maybe. Maybe he did I kind of…I knew all the information he needed.”  
Ultron frowned, as much as a robot could frown, sitting back down.  
“What information?”  
“The kind of information that, if I were working for my old employers, could get me killed. In fact, they tried to kill me. With missiles. Did it work? No. Do I have a cool scar to show for it? Yes.” She rambled, watching the girl now. She was also pretty, but her brother (she assumed) was just like a snowflake.   
The girl conjured some red flowy stuff, Josie didn’t know what it was, “I think she’s telling the truth.”  
“I can’t lie to save my damn life!” Josie replied, very very quickly, trying to back away. “Honestly, it’s in my file, which Tin Can over there should have in his brain. Yeah, you. Ultron? Is that it? You. Yeah. Tell me everything you know about me.”  
He looked up again, and the two siblings looked away from her and towards him. “Uh…strange request. Okay. Choi, Jung-ah, English name Josephina, age 21, born December 27th 1993, daughter of Daniel Choi, deceased, and Ah Chae-young, 49, sister to James Choi, 10. Fluent in English, Korean, and Russian, a prodigy, began working for Stark Industries at 16, then S.H.I.E.L.D at 19, then left S.H.I.E.L.D at 20 after the discovery of HYDRA agents and operations that were hidden from her, and also Nicholas Fury. No powers, no suits, no aliases. SAT score of 1588, IQ of 176. Notably awkward around those who are older than her.” He reeled off as if he were bored.   
“See? Just a kid genius!” she replied, as the siblings’ attention returned to her. “So…who are you…?” she asked, backing to the lab.   
They didn’t get to answer, as the girl was astounded by the fact that she could ‘read’ him, Ultron, before she screamed, her brother going to her side, leaving enough time for Josie to attempt an escape, doing so, running out of the lab as fast as she could.  
On her way, however, she ran into Captain America, or Steve.  
“Thank god, they’re going to leave they’re taking the back – I heard blasts though…” she breathed, turning back. “A-and my eomma’s at work today.”  
She decided, however, to instead go try to get people out of harms’ way, trying to guide people into buildings.

\-------

While she was doing that, in the middle of Seoul, she happened across the siblings from before.  
“Why aren’t you with the dumb robot?” she asked immediately, “And why are you surrounded by ajumma?”   
“What is…an ajumma?” the girl asked.   
“Uh…I’ll…tell you if you tell me your names.” She replied, as an easy response. “Or I’ll just give you nicknames.”  
“Pietro Maximoff.” The male said, before the female could.  
“Wanda…Maximoff.” She replied.  
“Good, you know my name. An ajumma is an older lady. Marriage age or older.” Josie nodded. “Why’d you leave Ultron?”  
“I saw…the destruction…” Wanda began.  
She waited a second. “So…he wants to destroy everything. Okay, got it, I got that back in the tower, anything else? Because if there is, just…go help them.”   
Pietro just nodded, grabbing his sister and running, still a blur.   
“Okay, so now I know he’s pretty and fast.” She sighed, trying to get in contact with somebody.   
She tried Clint first, no answer, then Natasha, who responded with a ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE’, then Steve, who didn’t respond. She just decided to wait it out.

\------

She only noticed things happening when a train went through a wall, and she saw the blur again, and the red, quickly being swept to the side by the blue.  
“Well…at least they’re helping.” She sighed, leaning against a wall, as it stopped and people were helped off.   
She wandered to where the blue stopped, and Steve stood.  
“Well…that was…neat.” She sighed, “And nobody got majorly injured, I think. Not more than what usually happens when people drive in Korea, anyway.”  
A panting Pietro looked up at her then. “Huh?”  
“It was a joke. Be careful around cars though, buddy.” She joked, looking at him again then. She was getting distracted by how pretty he was again, no, stop looking at him, this isn’t right- “Why are you so pretty?” she sighed.  
Steve looked at her then, frowning. “Could you…maybe, control your hysteria for five seconds, Jose?”  
“Sorry, I just keep getting distracted.” She muttered, shaking her head, as Steve stared at who she knew as Wanda. “You are very pretty though.” She told Pietro, who nearly grinned, a little out of breath.

\-----

They wound up, eventually, back at the Tower, Josie nearly immediately deciding to leave this, and go back to her little space, a little lightheaded.   
However, she found herself woken up by a lot of broken glass, yelling, the sound of Tony’s little thrusters, and then the crackling of Thor’s presence.   
“What the fuck.” She sighed, curled up on her couch, deeply unhappy. “Leave me alone…”  
She eventually decided, once the shattering and the yelling were over, to wander down, spotting a strange red guy surrounded by all the other people she knew were there.  
“Who’s the Anti-Smurf?” she asked, wandering down, not particularly happy.  
Only Tony looked up. “I…we don’t know. When did you get here?”  
“That depends, when did you decide it was a good idea to make another thing based on AI?” she frowned, crossing her arms from her spot on the stairs.  
“Not important.” He shrugged, eyes going back to the red man/guy. “When did you get here?”  
“Not important.” She frowned, watching as they all started to leave. “Where are you guys going?”  
They looked up then, most of them. “Nowhere you can follow.” Steve replied, frowning at her.  
“Oh, so you mean literally any place you go ever. Okay, fine, I’ll just be here. Sweeping up glass.” She joked, though she was unhappy, heading upstairs to make a few phonecalls.

\-----

She made a desperate call-out to her old boss; Nick Fury, telling him where they were going.  
She also managed to land her way into that very plan, ending up on the deck of the old helicarrier.   
She was sure there was still blood on the wall where she fell in 2012, but it’d do. Fury was there, and she was there, working on the old systems she knew so well, mostly trying to keep it in flight; they didn’t have enough people to actually fly it.  
She did remember a few people, however; like that one person who she recognized from the infamous HYDRA uprising who was probably one of the smartest people she’d met at S.H.I.E.L.D. She didn’t know his name, just that he was cool.  
“I remember being on here during an alien invasion.” She sighed fondly, as they approached Sokovia.   
“I remember you hitting your head so hard I had to remind you what your age was. That’s what I remember.” Nick replied.   
She frowned. “I got the last bit though.”  
“…True.” He replied, as the approached what seemed to be half a floating city; Novi Grad, from her research. 

\------

“Glad you like the view, Romanov.” Nick stated. “It’s about to get better.”  
Josie sighed, he was always one for the dramatic reveal. They raised themselves then, into the view of Steve and Nat, and apparently also Pietro. He was still pretty.  
“Nice, right?” Nick continued. “Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She’s dusty but…she’ll do.”  
Steve, from what Josie could tell, was smiling.   
“Fury, you son of a bitch.” He replied.  
Josie immediately wanted to yell language into Fury’s microphone, but just settled for his response.   
“Ooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?” Fury replied, as Josie just rolled her eyes.  
“Altitude is 18,000 and climbing.” Maria Hill stated from her seat, near where Josie was.  
“Lifeboats secure to deploy.” Stated the smart man who Josie only knew the personality of. “Disengage in three…two…take ‘em out.”  
Josie just watched. She’d demanded to be allowed to go, since she was banned by Steve almost exclusively, and had even dressed in her old gear she never wore when she actually worked on the helicarrier.  
It wasn’t long until the dumb robots (she was still blaming Tony) decided to attack them.  
“Sir, we have multiple bogeys converging on our starboard flank.” Maria sighed.  
“Show ‘em what we got.” Nick replied.  
Maria nodded, beginning to speak to who she knew to be Rhodey. “You’re up.”

The smart guy, Josie really had to make an attempt to know his name at some point, then informed them in his awkward, stuttery way that the number 6 ship was full of people.  
However, before anybody could respond, one of the robots (she was still very much blaming Tony) burst through the front glass, causing Josie to jump to the side of the ship, hiding. She was getting good at that. 

\------

The rest of what she saw wasn’t important; nobody besides she guessed Mr Pretty™ was injured or killed, and she hadn’t noticed anything awful.  
The important thing was that one, she lived, and two, they were safe, at least for now.


End file.
